Author: White Queen
Quite some trading periods ago, the Council of Veterans (CoV) was abolished and replaced by two new institutions: the High Council (HC) and the Federal Union (FU). They took over the tasks the old Veterans had but in completely different composition. Where the Veterans were chosen by the Federals and the CoV, the High Council and Federal Union are fully composed of players. The High Council chooses its members themselves and the Federal Union is made up by the government leaders and a second person to aid them in the discussion. The HC has to check on law changes proposed by National Governments and advises on improvements. The Federal Union concerns itself with the International Law and other matters that require international discussion. Both the FU and the HC were and are not undisputed. In this article, I will focus on the Federal Union and what is fundamentally wrong with it.
The changes regarding crime are perhaps the most infamous example why this institution is doomed to fail. As most probably know, the discussion about the lowering of fines for criminal acts is going on for many trading periods now. Fruitless, without any notable result. To cut many trading periods worth of discussion down to the core, the stalemate that lasts so long now is due to the radically different opinions between those that want the fines lowered (mainly Digitalia, for obvious reasons), and those that aren’t that eager (most fanatical on this part is Cyberia). The trouble in this debate is that those opposed to just lowering the fines as asked by the Federal Government demand game changes that make active crime fighting possible and actually worth it. Which side is right or wrong doesn’t matter now, as it is irrelevant to the core of my argument. This case shows that the Federal Union is dysfunctional in every sense of the word.
The fundamental problem of the FU is simply that it consists of government leaders. As is common knowledge, the governments of Virtua and Cyberia are democratic. Or at least were, as I’m not well aware what changed in Cyberia during the last trading period. The point however is, government leaders change. Not so often in Digitalia or Ibisha perhaps, but they change nonetheless. This means opinions of those with the right to vote can change very sudden. Which makes discussing this matter very frustrating, especially for those leaders who are part of the Federal Union for multiple trading periods. This is the first problem with this construction.
The second fundamental problem is that these leaders, although it cannot be expected very much otherwise, are talking mainly on behalf of the interests of their country. They have a mandate given by their own people and this obliges them to defend the interests of these people on all levels. Here lies the crucial point why the Federal Union cannot function to reach balanced results. Any result will be a compromise between the interests of the four countries in our Federation, if a compromise is reached at all, and not a balanced compromise in the best interest of the Federation itself.
So, how can we solve this undesirable situation? A restoration of the Council of Veterans would seem the obvious choice, but let’s not linger too long with nostalgia and try looking for other paths. We can’t deny the Federal Union offers good opportunities to make diplomacy far more interesting than it has been before. Certainly, quite some discussions about the International Law or International Treaties can be done there without many problems. But when it comes to truly far-reaching things like the situation with criminality, it utterly fails to do what it’s supposed to do.
One solution could be to move this discussion from the Federal Union to the High Council. This institution is far more stable than the FU and allows to ask the people who are most useful in this case, not depending on the grills of the national politics. In this case though, the High Council should be allowed to either expand to more members, or create some kind of commissions to come with a balanced proposal to the High Council.
Another solution is to reinforce the Federal Union with people chosen by the High Council as ‘Veterans’ and are allowed to vote as well. This cancels out a part of the second problem, but would make the Federal Union less interesting for less difficult matters.
These are only some ideas that sprang to mind, there are many other possibilities probably. I don’t pretend to hold the answer to this problem. Nonetheless, I hope I can throw a spark to enkindle a fruitful and decent discussion about these frustrating and demotivating issues.
Remark of the editorial staff: This article has been published together with the Dutch edition, because it might be a resource for opinions for the first following edition, the Golden Edition.